3 ms·

> businesses looking to offer their employees a silicon valley low formality work environment is that such businesses can probably do it themselves with a tradi

> businesses looking to offer their employees a silicon valley low formality work environment is that such businesses can probably do it themselves with a traditional lease for less than the premium charged by WeWork. Over the long term, you may be right. But at least for the next ten years, I don’t think so. Many businesses don’t even realize this is something desirable, but even those that do, don’t know how to achieve it. Assuming young talented new hires keep demanding it (no sign of that slowing), and while many companies remain in the dark (a very slow gradual process), WeWork will remain an attractive solution. Regarding law, accounting, finance requiring greater security, that’s hardly a serious blocker. Locked doors, frosted glass office windows, and locked down WiFi solve those problems pretty easily.

ineedasername 7y ago
> but even those that do, don’t know how to achieve it Yes, I hand't considered that, but it's like 100% (or 99.999%) correct. I work on a sprawling campus and about 10% of buildings are ~100 years old, and many others 40 or 50 years old. As they remodel and build new facilities, they try to go for trendy cool SilVal lite and... yeah, it kind of doesn't work. I mean, nicer than the old cramped facilities, but that's it. For finance etc., I'm not sure locked doors & frosted glass are sufficient if they're embedded with other offices and there's lots of intermingling foot traffic in the area, but I suppose with relative few additional precautions it could work, and it would be very smart for WeWork to enhance themselves in that area. However these business frequently want longer term leases, so WeWork would also have to expand their options for 5+ year lease terms. Getting a good baseline of such customers would also offer a nice baseline of guaranteed revenue that could help weather temporary downturns in either the overall economy or startup/vc availability.
- speedplane 7y ago
  > For finance etc., I'm not sure locked doors & frosted glass are sufficient if they're embedded with other offices and there's lots of intermingling foot traffic in the area, but I suppose with relative few additional precautions it could work I know for certain that shared office space for lawyers is common. I actually visited such a space just a week ago. This particular space was hideous and depressing, but many 1-3 attorney law firms were operating right next to each other. At least for law, there are certain ethical obligations everyone needs to follow, and if you break them, you can lose your license, get fined, and in extreme cases, face jail time. For security, in addition to frosted glass and locked doors, maybe WeWork could devote certain areas of a space to certain professions, i.e., this floor is for lawyers, this one is for accountants, etc. Only the worst and most unethical lawyers would break into another law firm's records, and there are plenty of existing processes for dealing with that. The big point here is that with a bit of tweaking, WeWork could service just about any office-based company. There is a currently small, but fast growing demand for the type of office culture they are promoting. It's plausible that in 20 years, the "startup" style workspace will be the norm, rather than a niche millenial perk. It's not clear if WeWork will ultimately succeed, but they have a huge head start and seem to be tapped into what a quickly growing segment of office culture is demanding.

ineedasername 7y ago

> but even those that do, don’t know how to achieve it Yes, I hand't considered that, but it's like 100% (or 99.999%) correct. I work on a sprawling campus and about 10% of buildings are ~100 years old, and many others 40 or 50 years old. As they remodel and build new facilities, they try to go for trendy cool SilVal lite and... yeah, it kind of doesn't work. I mean, nicer than the old cramped facilities, but that's it. For finance etc., I'm not sure locked doors & frosted glass are sufficient if they're embedded with other offices and there's lots of intermingling foot traffic in the area, but I suppose with relative few additional precautions it could work, and it would be very smart for WeWork to enhance themselves in that area. However these business frequently want longer term leases, so WeWork would also have to expand their options for 5+ year lease terms. Getting a good baseline of such customers would also offer a nice baseline of guaranteed revenue that could help weather temporary downturns in either the overall economy or startup/vc availability.

speedplane 7y ago
> For finance etc., I'm not sure locked doors & frosted glass are sufficient if they're embedded with other offices and there's lots of intermingling foot traffic in the area, but I suppose with relative few additional precautions it could work I know for certain that shared office space for lawyers is common. I actually visited such a space just a week ago. This particular space was hideous and depressing, but many 1-3 attorney law firms were operating right next to each other. At least for law, there are certain ethical obligations everyone needs to follow, and if you break them, you can lose your license, get fined, and in extreme cases, face jail time. For security, in addition to frosted glass and locked doors, maybe WeWork could devote certain areas of a space to certain professions, i.e., this floor is for lawyers, this one is for accountants, etc. Only the worst and most unethical lawyers would break into another law firm's records, and there are plenty of existing processes for dealing with that. The big point here is that with a bit of tweaking, WeWork could service just about any office-based company. There is a currently small, but fast growing demand for the type of office culture they are promoting. It's plausible that in 20 years, the "startup" style workspace will be the norm, rather than a niche millenial perk. It's not clear if WeWork will ultimately succeed, but they have a huge head start and seem to be tapped into what a quickly growing segment of office culture is demanding.